What Will Be Your Mission for the Gweduck?

GWEDUCK

GWEDUCK Ellison-Mahon Gweduck Represented by Composite Creations, Inc. Prineville, Oregon 97754

Walter Fellows 206-407-8285 [email protected]

www.gweduck.com

GWEDUCK

GWEDUCK—MODERNIZING THE PERSONAL FLYING BOAT 2015

Gweduck

 Large useful load Gross Weight: 6,200 lb  Superior rough water capability Payload: 2,000 lb  Can taxi out on a beach Effective Load*: 1,360 lb  Good water handling Cruise Speed: 119 kts  Composite airframe resists corro- Fuel Burn: 21 gph sion Airframe: Composite  Low spray in props and engines * Load with fuel for 300 nm round reduces maintenance costs trip

 Good fuel economy increasing effective useful load

 Acceptable engine out performance

1940s GRUMMAN WIDGEON GRUMMAN GOOSE Grumman flying boats built

 Large useful load

 Superior rough water capability

 Can taxi out on a beach

Issues

 Poor water handling Gross Weight: 8,000 lb Gross Weight: 4,500 lb Payload: 2,575 lb  Aluminum airframe corrosion Payload: 1,411 lb Effective Load:*: 1,060 lb  High maintenance cost from spray in Effective Load:* 720 lb props and engines Cruise Speed: 119 kts Cruise Speed: 115 kts Fuel Burn: 50 gph  Poor fuel economy reducing useful load Fuel Burn: 22-28 gph Airframe: Aluminum  Poor engine out performance Airframe: Aluminum  Available aircraft are high time as production ended in the 50s

GWEDUCK

WHAT WILL BE YOUR MISSION FOR THE GWEDUCK?

 Access your home on the water  Air sea camper  Exploring the world’s wildest places  Tender passengers and supplies to your cruising yacht  Fishing and hunting  Filming wildlife  Supply adventure expeditions

MEETING YOUR MISSION WITH...

 Superior water handling and utility  Large load and cabin volume  Better rough water ability than a float plane  Long range  Lower maintenance costs than other amphibians in its class  Excellent visibility from the cabin `

GWEDUCK

KEY FEATURES OF THE GWEDUCK Spacious cabin with room for six to sit comfortably. Easily reconfigurable to carry any combination of passengers or cargo and enough room for side by side seats convertible to cots.

Extensive use of composite fittings for corro- Individually retracting floats and a water ballast sion resistance. tank on each side to lower the wing for docking.

Top of wing and fuselage reinforced to allow access while on the water.

Separate wing leading edge piece for easy minor repairs. Tail wheel landing gear configuration for taxi- ing from water to a beach. Single point fueling for each side in the engine nacelles.

Room in the rear of the engine nacelles for optional equipment such as ground power units Top mounted exhaust keeps components out of and air conditioning. spray and reduces cabin noise.

Fuel tanks—200 gallons total in a 60 gallon inboard and 40 gallon outboard tank on each Reliable counter rotating updraft Lycoming IO- side. Optional 271 gallons total. 540-M1B5 engines without turbochargers and derated to 300HP@27000 rpm.

Composite Structure

Main Spars—Twin back to back C spars with unidirectional carbon fiber spar caps and fi- Reversible full feathering MT composite three berglass shear webs. bladed propellers for water handling.

Front Spar—Front spar for mounting the engines and isolating the wing leading edge Nose hatch accessible from the cockpit. piece for easy repair of minor damage.

Wing and fuselage skins—Fiberglass foam sandwich construction for impact resistance and easy repair in a boat yard. Large windshield and windows and high Elevators, rudders and ailerons—Carbon fi- wing for excellent visibility. Overhead win- ber bidirectional cloth with foam core. dows in the cockpit provide better overhead Hull—Fiberglass and foam core sandwich visibility. with carbon/Kevlar b/d cloth reinforcement for impact resistance.

GWEDUCK

BUILDING INTERIOR

The Gweduck partners want the builders to complete a safe air- The large cabin, high wing design and large baggage com- craft as efficiently as possible. Composite Creations maps out a partment provide the clean space for the builder to configure build plan with each buyer to meet the objectives of the buyer. the interior to meet their needs and desires. Some builders The Gweduck is supplied as a quick build kit with substantial will choose a utility interior of minimum weight that can be portions of the assembly complete. While building the easily reconfigured from passenger seating to cargo. Others Gweduck requires a relatively large workspace due to its size, will choose add more plush interior of leather and wood at there is a lot of room to work inside the aircraft. Included in the the expense of lost useful load. Others may prefer an interior kit price is the firewall forward and fuel system installation kit with polished teak and leather and fabrics reminiscent of to help the builders get a reliable power and fuel system. In ad- the flying boat era of the 40s and 50s. dition Composite Creations will provide assistance for the wing RDD, the builder assist partner, offers interior design ser- closeout at its facility due to the required specialized equipment vices to meet the builders requirements with the highest and additional personnel. The basic kit price also includes first quality at reasonable prices. They are familiar with the spe- flight of the aircraft at Redmond Oregon airport. An optional cialized fittings for a working amphibian aircraft in harsh factory builder assistance program is available by the builder marine environments. The kit will come with basic seat assistance partner, RDD Enterprises, in Redmond Oregon. RDD frames and shoulder harnesses to provide the basic building has been providing top notch assistance to builders of Lancair blocks for the interior. aircraft for more than ten years. Composite Creations also provides an optional inspection certificate program. The time re- quirement to build the Gweduck is expected to be comparable to smaller size composite kit aircraft such as the Lancair legacy. AVIONICS AND ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

The large size and composite construction of the Gweduck provides maximum flexibility in building out the builders FLIGHT TRAINING choice of avionics whether the choice is glass, steam guages or a combination of the two. Some of the glass systems have The Gweduck partners also want the owners to get the assis- proven to be very reliable with excellent available service tance they need to fly the Gweduck to meet their plans safely. for the challenging environment of commercial seaplane During the purchase process Composite Creations will work operations. There is room for optional equipment such as with each builder to map out a training program so they are pre- HF radios, enhanced vision systems and satellite radios. pared to fly their completed aircraft. Two hours of dual instruc- Most builders will want to include marine avionics as well tion is included in the basic kit price. Additional training is such as a marine VHF and a depth finders. The twin engine available to help complete required flight training. Burke Mees design provides for easy installation of a redundant electri- is in charge of our flight training program. Burke is a captain cal system without a vacuum system. with a major US airline lving in Anchorage. Formerly he was a line pilot flying the Grumman Goose in the Aleutians and check The kit will provide basic VHF com and nav antennas that pilot for the company. He currently provides flight training for provide for optimum use. Composite Creations is partnering the Grumman Goose and the Widgeon.. with Aerotronics, one of the most highly regarded avionics shops for both experimental and certified aircraft, to develop optimum avionics installations at competitive prices. The

Sample instrument panel designed by Aerotronics

GWEDUCK

Gweduck, Extending the Flying Boat Heritage…

In 1939 Grumman Aircraft introduced the Goose, an eight place flying boat designed to provide personal transportation from the mansions on the shores of eastern Long Island to New York City. The Goose was Ease of fueling while on land or afloat was assured by placing the fuel filler necks for each wing in the followed in 1940 by the smaller 6 place Widgeon. Soon after, the US was plunged into World War II and rear of each engine nacelle. This permitted all servicing to be accomplished by a crew member sitting on these two aircraft were produced in great numbers for patrol and search and rescue. When the war ended the wing leading edge inboard of each engine. surplus Goose and Widgeons found their way into a variety of commercial and private services, operat- ing from the tropics of Australia to the Aleutian Islands, including extensive scheduled air service in The most important and most challenging aspect of the user friendly design goal, was to design hull bot- maritime Canada and Alaska. tom geometry to avoid the divergent porpoising that destroyed so many Grumman Widgeons. Accord- ingly, Ben studied numerous NACA reports on US Navy flying boats and consulted with several sea- These two Grumman flying boats developed a reputation as tough aircraft that could carry heavy loads in plane experts, the most prominent of whom was David Thurston. (Mr. Thurston, a former Grumman en- rough weather and water conditions. Despite their utility, they were more difficult to fly than a floatplane gineer was the designer of the Skimmer Amphibian which later became the Lake Amphibian). Several and required delicate handling on the water. The Widgeon was prone to divergent porpoising, which de- potential hull bottom configurations were modeled and tested on a radio controlled quarter size stroyed many of their number. Gweduck. Eventually the secret to pitch stability revealed itself and the work then focused on keeping spray out of the propellers. The spray problem was eventually solved by the simple expedient of copying Maintenance costs of all the Grumman boats was very high, owing to the corrosive action of salt water on an ingenious Japanese chine duct design used on their post war air/sea rescue aircraft. aluminum. Spray thrown through the propellers and into the engines greatly shortened their service life, and the aluminum airframes required frequent and extensive rebuilding. 2012 saw the end of scheduled The remaining part of the design effort, was to call in well known aircraft structures expert Martin Holl- air service for the Goose in Alaska and Canada. mann, to do a structural analysis of the design and to make any changes necessary to carry all flight and water loads. In 1990 Ben Ellison and Ross Mahon, a young technician working for Ben, watched a Widgeon land at the Renton Airport near Seattle. Both Ben and Ross, seaplane pilots, agreed there was a real need for a mod- The Gweduck first flew in 2009 and the flight and the test program is now substantially complete. The ern version of the classic flying boat aircraft. Ross’ father had headed the production of the Canadian aircraft has shown itself to be extremely docile on airports, as well as on water and one experienced float built PBY Catalina for Boeing during the war in Vancouver BC and knew a great deal about the subtleties plane pilot and aviation writer commented that “the Gweduck is as easy to operate on and off the water of flying boat operation. Marty, Ben’s brother and a Delta Airline pilot, shared the flying boat passion, as a float plane”. Its behavior when landing on airports has been described as what one would expect and the four of them laid out the specs for a modern flying boat. from a twin engine Piper Cub. No major changes from the prototype have been required, so the prototype tooling will be used for an initial production run of at least five aircraft. The size and weights of their new flying boat were targeted between the Widgeon and the Goose, and the wing was designed with a high aspect ratio coupled with a modern airfoil. The airframe/hull incorpo- rated fiberglass skin sandwiching a foam core for impact resistance and easy repair. Carbon fiber is used in the wing spars and control surfaces.

The first priority in the aircraft’s design was that it be user friendly when taking off and landing, as well as when moving around on the water in a busy marine environment. Good maneuverability on the water required reversible engines supplemented by a very effective retractable water rudder. Easy dockside mooring dictated individually retractable wing tip floats, with main landing gear tires protruding just far enough to serve as dock bumpers. Also the top surfaces of the wings and cabin needed to be tough enough for occasional foot traffic. To mitigate the occasional bumps and bruises inevitable from boats and docks, the Gweduck was designed with a nonstructural wing leading edge, allowing for easy repair or replacement of minor damage.

Ben Ellison’s company, Ellison-Mahon Aircraft, decided to license Composite Creations, Inc. to produce and market the Gweduck as an experimental kit aircraft. Composite Creations is a well-regarded composite aircraft manufacturer located in Prineville Oregon near Bend. The company was founded by Vern and

GWEDUCK

SPECIFICATIONS PERFORMANCE

Twin Engine Amphibian Max Cruise Speed 139 kts

Seats 6 Economy Cruise Speed 120 kts

Economy Fuel Consumption 21 gph

WEIGHTS Range, pilot, no reserves* 1,350 nm

Gross Weight 6,200 lbs Range, 2 persons, 45 min res* 1,200 nm

Basic Empty Weight 4,200 lbs Take-off time

Useful Load 2,000 lbs Water 25 sec

Land 18 sec

DIMENSIONS Maximum Service Ceiling 18,000 ft

Wing Span 48 ft Climb Rate (gross weight) 800 fpm

Length 34.5 ft Stall Speed, flaps and gear down 58 kts

Height 10.8 ft Maximum Cabin Width 54”

Maximum Cabin Width 54”

Sales Brochure ver1 26 Feb 2013